Bestselling Author

Susan Boles is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author of the Lily Gayle Lambert Mystery Series. Death said the Gypsy Queen is the fourth book in the series.

Inspiration for Death said the Gypsy Queen

“Each book in the series has been inspired by different things,” said Susan. “This one is no exception. I love to listen to classic rock and one day I heard ‘Sign Of The Gypsy Queen’ by April Wine on the radio and it felt like lightning struck. Not literally. LOL. But, somehow the song spoke to me for the next book in the series because it tied in so very well with the background theme that runs through the books of people who are tied together by genetics like the ‘wolfman’ in the first book and the ‘vampire’ in the third book. More information about that will be revealed in Death said the Gypsy Queen.”

Susan also said she cares deeply about her books and her readers. “I try to create a good story that brings enjoyment to everyone who reads my books. I also try to bring some of my own world into all of my books. I’m a seventh generation small town southerner and I try to bring that life into my books with my characters. The generational interaction, the family connections and the lifetime connections. My characters are all a mix of different people I’ve known or have met over the years and I hope readers can relate to any or all of them. My mother is convinced Miss Edna is based on her – even though I’ve explained to her that no character is based on any one person.”

Small-town living

The Lily Gayle Lambert Mystery Series books are set in the fictional town of Mercy, MS. “I have stitched together various actual homes and businesses to form the town,” Susan said. “Lily Gayle’s home is one that is not far from where I live. I’ve never met the people who live there. I hope, they weren’t home when I took pictures of the outside to have as reference for the book. No police showed up to question me—so I think I dodged a bullet on that one. As for the name of the town, I originally had it as Mercyonus. But that got voted out by various people who said it was just too corny. Even for a cozy mystery. And this came from people who live in or near towns named Finger and Sweet Lips!”

Living in a small town has its advantages. Once, when Susan was doing research for a stand alone historical women’s fiction novel, she was in the courthouse basement in Selmer, TN when she spotted an old man in overalls and a dirty ball cap sitting nearby watching her.

“He never took his eyes off me. Very creepy. I figured that since the county sheriff’s department was down the hall that nothing really terrible could happened. But still. Very creepy. When I took the books I was using back to the county clerk to return them, he came over to me and said. ‘You’re Shirley Russell’s girl, aren’t you,’ I cautiously agreed that I am and he said, ‘I’m your mama’s high school basketball coach. You look just like her.’ Wow! I had never met this man in my life and my mama had been out of high school for about forty years at that time, so this guy had a good memory. And, once he said that to me, I knew who he was. So, I said, ‘You must be Derucie Henry.’ And he gave me a huge smile and said, ‘She told you about me?’ So, we ended up chatting for about half an hour. Because my mama had told me about him. She had played basketball for him all four years of high school and been the captain her senior year.”

Charlie Donlea is an international bestselling author. His latest, Don’t Believe It, is his third novel. Charlie believes a novel must call to a reader for it to be read and writes accordingly.

No issues, but there is a thread

“My novels are meant for pure escapism reading, so I don’t see them as tackling social issues in any grand form,” Charlie said. “However, a common theme between all three of my novels is society’s obsession with missing persons cases and unsolved murders. Pop-culture magazines frequently feature on their covers missing girls, some of whom have been found after being missing for years. The common questions include how they were taken, why they didn’t escape sooner, and how they are readjusting to freedom.”

The first novel, Summit Lake, dealt with a father’s attempt to keep his murdered daughter out of the tabloids as a tenacious investigative reporter arrived in the small town where the murder took place looking for answers.

The Girl Who was Taken tells the story of two abducted girls, one who returns and another who does not. The girl who makes it home goes on to write a bestselling memoir that thrusts her into the public’s eye and draws attention to parts of her story she wants to keep secret. In researching novel, Charlie visited a morgue to view an autopsy. He still recalls his reaction. “Let’s just say that noodled legs and a fuzzy head made the experience less than stellar.”

Don’t Believe It taps into the public’s obsession with true crime documentaries and tells the story of a filmmaker creating a weekly-serialized documentary that delves into the grisly details of a decade-old murder that took place in the Caribbean, and which explores the enigmatic woman who has been convicted of the crime.

“The common thread among all three stories is the public’s unquenchable thirst for the morbid details of disturbing stories,” Charlie said.

A fascination with true crime

“I’m a true crime junkie,” Charlie said. “The podcast Serial hooked me, and Making a Murderer gave me an affliction. Since then, I’ve binge watched just about every true crime documentary on Netflix. My biggest complaint about these films is that they tend to raise more questions than they answer. So I decided the story of a documentary filmmaker uncovering the secrets of ten year-old murder not only provided a great premise for a timely novel, but also gave me the ability to create as wild an ending as my imagination could conceive. I hope readers feel that the finish of Don’t Believe It not only ties up loose ends in a way real documentaries seldom do, but also provides a shocking ending that will have them ripping back through the pages to see how they missed it.”

Competition on all fronts

“I am a true believer that in order for a novel to be successful, it has to call a reader back to it after they put it down. If a book is easy to put down and hard to pick up, most readers—including myself—will give up on it. I’m hyperaware of this fact when I write. I know there is fierce competition out there from other books, television, movies, and more. So, I try to make it hard for readers to put my books down. And I make damn sure to include in the pages enough reasons for readers to pick them up again after they do.”

The Matt Damon connection

The setting of Don’t Believe It is a tropical resort in St. Lucia called Sugar Beach Resort. It’s a resort on the Jalousie Plantation that Matt Damon commandeered to renew his wedding vows. Charlie said he and his wife discovered the resort while visiting the island on Spring Break with their kids. “I thought it would make the perfect location for my novel. So much so that my wife and I returned to Sugar Beach the following year to celebrate our anniversary and do some much needed research to boot.

“My Matt Damon connection comes from a St. Lucian guide who worked for Sugar Beach. I hired him to take my wife and me on a tour of the island for my research. We asked if he drove Matt Damon or any celebrities around the island. No, he told us. But he did transport Damon’s photographer back to the airport after the vow renewal. Close enough.”

Behind the story of Death by a Whisker

T. C. LoTempio is the national bestselling author of the Nick and Nora Mystery series. Her latest release is Death by a Whisker, which is the second book in her Cat Rescue Mystery series. T.C. loves animals and animal shelters. In Death by a Whisker she wanted to highlight the importance of animal shelters while providing cozy mystery lovers with a fun read.

“I started out writing supernatural suspense, “ LoTempio said. “I would say the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done and could also be considered the craziest, is learn to read the Tarot! People would be surprised to learn there’s a whole science behind it, and I actually got pretty good at it, although I’m hardly qualified to hang out my shingle as a pro!”

The Tarot might have been interesting and fun for LoTempio, but her love of animals led her to cozy mysteries. “Each year shelters all around the country adopt humane policies and practices to save animals’ lives. Even though I concentrate mainly on cats in the series, I am a huge advocate of shelters for all animals. Shelters and organizations like Alley Cat Allies protect cats not just in the United States, but everywhere in the world. I hope that in setting the series in an animal shelter I can make people aware of just how much these are needed and we should all do what we can to help.

Animal rights and its importance

“I’m a tireless advocate for animal rights and organizations such as Alley Cat Allies and the Humane Society. It’s funny, I can watch murders on TV but I can’t abide seeing an animal die or be killed (I have NEVER seen or read Old Yeller and I have no desire to. I read Cujo once and never picked up the book again; and let’s not even talk about Bambi).”

In addition to her interest in animal shelters, LoTempio is also an avid shopping channel watcher. She said, “I have to admit there are a few hosts and merchants that I wouldn’t mind killing off. I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent LOL. I did have one particular merchant in mind that the character of Ulla is based on, but I’ll never tell who it is!”

Once ROCCO got a look at the camera lens he took off like a shot.

When LoTempio sold her first series, Nick and Nora, to Penguin and was having her author photo taken, she and her editor decided to include her cat in the photo. “We thought it would be nice for the author photo to be of me and my cat, ROCCO (who writes his own blog and on who the character of Nick is based) I have a friend who is a photographer who said he would come over and take the photo. Well, once ROCCO got a look at the camera lens he took off like a shot.

“We chased him all over the house. I finally cornered him in my closet but he dug his claws into the top of one of my bins and wouldn’t let go. We finally had to stop because the cat was panting so hard I thought he was going to have a heart attack. I called a friend of mine at the Clifton Animal Shelter—where I adopted ROCCO—and fortunately she had a lovely tuxedo cat there named Fred who was almost an exact double for ROCCO. So, the cat in my author photo for both series is not ROCCO, but Fred! ROCCO is probably the only cat I know who has a body double.”

Peg Cochran is a national bestselling writer with a background in art—she once managed an art gallery owned by the son of Henri Matisse. She also has a love of cooking and has a special fondness for dessert. Her latest cozy mystery is Dead and Berried, which is the third book in the Cranberry Cove mystery series.

Light reading — cozy style

“Cozy mysteries are generally ‘light’ reading with nothing too upsetting in them—other than the murder, of course. But I feel there is room to include something slightly more serious assuming it is handled in a delicate manner. Without giving too much away, one character in Dead and Berried is an older woman dealing with the challenges of dementia. I also touch on the subject of scams perpetrated against older people.”

Cochran said the series came about when she had a sudden vision of a body rising up in a flooded cranberry bog. “In the first three books,” she said, “I’ve followed the seasons on a cranberry farm—harvesting in the fall, sanding and icing the bogs in the winter and in this book, bringing in bees to pollinate the cranberry flowers in the late spring/early summer. The bees gave me the idea for the murder and I built the plot from there.”

Bees? Oh, aren’t they in trouble? “Yes, the book also gave me the opportunity to discuss—lightly!—the plight of the honey bee and their rapid disappearance and what that means to food production.”

Peg Cochran feels lucky

Cochran said she feels unbelievably lucky and privileged to have achieved her dream of being published. “I still pinch myself when I see all my titles lined up on my bookshelf. I love the writing process—except when I hate it, LOL—and I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”

Double Trouble Entry Code: RedBerries

Research can be tedious, but can also lead to some very unusual situations, something Cochran learned when she was researching the first book in the series at a cranberry farm.

“It was a perfect fall day with blue skies and all those ruby-red cranberries massed together in the flooded bog. The owner of the farm led everyone on a tour and explained each step of the harvesting process. When he asked if anyone had any questions, I raised my hand. ‘What would you do with the cranberries if a body suddenly floated up in the flooded bog as you were harvesting?’ He gave me a strange look, took a step backwards and didn’t answer! He looked relieved when I explained it was research for a book. But he still didn’t have an answer for me!”

The strange world of art

However, if you think writing is a funny profession, you ain’t seen nothing yet. During her first week in the art gallery, Cochran was asked to make a delivery. “I was sent in a taxi along with a dealer and the three Chagalls he’d brought to his gallery on Madison Avenue to collect the one million dollar check he owed for the paintings. I’ve never handled such a large check since!”

During her second month on the job, Cochran’s boss and his wife left for their summer home in the south of France. “I was left to handle the gallery by myself. At one point I had a question and called my boss. His wife answered and said there was no way he would come to the phone at that moment because he was out on their terrace with his telescope. The terrace looked out over the Bay of Monaco—and Princess Caroline was out sunbathing topless on her yacht.”

And then there’s the you’ve-got-to-love-a-twist story, a favorite tool of mystery writers. “We had an exhibition of an artist who was extremely popular with collectors. The gallery was packed from morning until night. My boss was tired of answering questions and when a gentleman in very casual dress asked him how much a certain painting was, he snapped—why don’t you just enjoy looking at it because you probably couldn’t afford it, anyway! The gentleman bought the painting and his brother came in later and bought another one. The paintings were selling for a quarter of a million dollars.”